Al Bundy
"Oh great, Peg; there goes my appetite...and my favorite towel." Al Bundy (played by Ed O'Neill) was the husband of Peggy Bundy, father of Kelly and Bud Bundy long term employee at Gary's Shoes. Al is known to frequently tell tales of scoring four touchdowns in a single game of high school football, and blaming the results of his life on his wife and the Bundy Curse. Al Bundy is also notable for being the founder of NO MA'AM, an anti-feminist organization, after he loses his parking spot, and the local "nudie bar" was turned into a Coffee House. Al is also notable for his 1971 Dodge, which he has been paying for, for years, never quite owning it outright. Biography When Al was a child, he had frequented a library but rarely returned books on time, and constantly battled the librarian, Miss DeGroot who belittled him as much as he did her. To try and teach him a lesson, Miss DeGroot agreed to let Al check out one more book, specifically, The Little Engine that Could, which Al in turn, held onto for thirty years before he attempted to return the book unnoticed to avoid paying fines. ( ) As the series went on, Al would say how his childhood was very ideal. And unlike now, he would actually eat dinner. Al had a strong relationship with his father. Its shown that he cherishes the memories of him and his father together, as well as the things he inherited from him, such the hammer that was used to build a private room in If Al Had a Hammer or the collection of Playboys his dad left him in Desperately Seeking Miss October. Its also implied that his mother may have been an alcholic, telling Steve Rhodes in Desperately Seeking Miss October that she would get drunk off of Singapore Sling and then pass out, allowing him and his father to sneak into the basement and look his collection of Playboys, sharing a special father-son moment. Al had no siblings making him an only child. He attended James K. Polk High School and was considered a top athlete, playing full back for the football team and earning the nickname "Touchdown Bundy". His jersey number was 33. His greatest achievement in high school was scoring four touchdowns in a single game against Andrew Johnson HIgh at the High School City Championship in 1966. He also scored the most touchdowns in one season for the team, making him the MVP that same year. In the episode, Scared Single, its revealed that he had drilled four holes into the girl's locker room and joked that he didn't even think women had heads for years. In the same episode, he reveals that he actually had a scholarship to play college football, but broke his leg after being tackled. In another episode, he comfirms the story about his leg being broken by a tackle, adding that it was Peggy's fault as she had distracted him during the game, even though he had told her not to do it anymore. It is implied that he had many women during his high school years, due to him being on the football team, before meeting Margret "Peggy" Wanker and from there, his luck seemed to go downhill. Some of the women have been: *Sandy Jorgenson *Helen Granowinner (Coco) *Louis *Marylin O'Brien (nee Fisher) *Mary Ignacious In the episode, Married...With Prom Queen, its revealed that in high school, he had a rival named Jack, a fellow athlete who always tried to outdo Al in just about everything. They tied in just about everything and split the school down the middle. On graduation day, they were planning to finally settle things by fighting in the school yard until one was the winner. But, this was cancelled, as Al decided to take a $10 bet from a classmate to jump a Mustang going 50 MPH, but missed by 2 inches. They eventually get the chance to settle the dispute at their 20 year high school reunion with Al defeating Jack (although Al implies that he's seriously injured while dancing with Peg in the spotlight at the end of the episode). When Al and Peggy were first married, he took up a job as a shoe salesman, as Peggy impiled, "Just Until I land on my feet". But when Kelly was born, he got stuck as a shoesales man and couldn't find the time to quit. Relationships Family Al often gives the appearance and the opinion that he cannot stand his family, often making degrading and insulting remarks to them, and threatening physical violence against his wife, Peggy Bundy and his son, Bud Bundy. It has been proven however, on many occasions that he does in fact love and care for his family, and will at times intentionally sacrifice his chance at happiness and success for them. Peggy Bundy Al and Peggy met while the two were in high school, and it has been suggested many times that Al was willingly intimate with her and often took her on dates. However, Al has often said that Peggy had an annoying habit of trying to get his attention during the football games while he was on the field, and that on several occasions, injuries were the result. Al also insist that his marriage to Peggy was not entirely willful, something her father, Ephraim Wanker proved true when he drunken mentioned he had once held a shotgun upon Al to force his marriage to Peggy. This was proven when he once more held a shotgun to Al's head to get him to remarry Peggy, the joke being on Al since the gun was never loaded the first time. He has however shown he loves Peggy, albeit rarely. After all despite everything he has not divorced her, whether this means he cares for her or he just fears her family is not determined. Kelly Bundy Al seems to value his daughter, Kelly who he usually calls "Pumpkin", even though he seems to wonder just how dumb she can really be almost every time he sees her in every episode. He also seems to either pretend that his daughter isn't promiscious or just doesn't get the fact that she is, but he is always quick to punch and throw out any boy she brings home, unless he can find a way to exploit him for his own gain. There have been times when he has been mad at her, like in the episode, Calendar Girl, when he found out that she ate his last Hershey's Kiss and as punishment, put her in the Bundy Will, meaning she will now be stuck with all his debts, to which she screams out "No! Daddy! NOOOO!!!". Other times he jokes about her stupidity with Bud, or tries to tease her, such as when she went insane from the Peruvian Stinging Beetles in Scared Single, joking that its cute that he "used to call her pumpkin, and now she is one" after she becomes unresponsive to his call. But overall, it is shown that he truly loves his daughter and will do his fatherly duty to protect her and make her happy. Bud Bundy As the next male heir in the Bundy family, Al seems to value his son for his intelligence more than his atheletic ability or his skill with women, both of which he seems to lack in comparison to his father. Both of them seem to have similar interests, such as going to the nudie bar, doing a panty raid and reading Big'Uns or Playboy and on some occasions, even paticipate in those activities together. Both of them end up getting a job they hate that involves dealing with people (Al with the shoe store and Bud working for the DMV in the later seasons) But unlike Al and the rest of the family, he does manage to go to college and has been known to use his higher level of intelligence to blackmail his father. Though especially in the early season, he would often snitch to Al about Kelly's failing grades or her whereabouts at night, believing that Al was the man of the house and as men, they would need to stick together Al has said that he wanted someone with more athletic ability, like Aaron Mitchell or with better business skill, like Little Floyd, to be the son he always wanted. On the other hand, Bud has sometimes said he isn't related to Al in order to avoid being embarrased by him, stating that he's actually adopted or Al is just some random guy he just happens to know. Also, unlike his father, he seems lack the ability to get as many women as Al did back in high school, often making him the butt of jokes. But, Bud will use his intelligence to make up for his lack of sex appeal and hatch up a plan in order to get girls, such as creating a fake persona (Grandmaster B), go skydiving, creating a fraternity or going on a game show, though in the end, it tends to backfire on him. Still, there have been plenty of moments when Al has been proud of him, such as when he gets into his first bar fight at the nudie bar, when he learns to run a lemonade stand in the middle of winter, when he was chosen to go to the White House or when he successfully blackmailed Al by getting him placed under house arrest. Overall, it is shown that Al is proud of Bud for being intelligent and doing something more with his life. Marcy D'Arcy Al and Marcy do not get along. Marcy holds neo-feminist values while Al feels that a woman's place is in the home, making dinner for her working husband (which he, comically, doesn't get in his own household). Through the years, Marcy and Al have had battles to try and one-up the other. One highlight of the constant struggle between Al and Marcy is the episode "NO MA'AM"; in which Al starts an anti-feminist group in order to fight, what he feels, is the growing number of people and places that support ideas like those of Marcy. The Jiggly Room is turned into a coffee house and his usual bowling night is replaced by Ladies' Night at the local bowling alley. All this proves to be too much for Al and he, and his associates, hold 'The Masculine Feminist' Jerry Springer hostage. Marcy shows up and reveals Al's identity to the world and has him arrested. Despite all these incidents between Al and Marcy, there is a strange sort of affection that Al feels for Marcy. When she's really low, he has been there to help her, such as when her first husband Steve Rhodes left her and he helped comfort her. And, despite all the snarky comments Marcy makes to Al, she has even been attracted to him on a few occasions, a good example being the episode, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Trivia *Throughout most of the show, Al wore the same light blue dress shirt, reddish-brown tie and blue-grey dress pants to work (or a very minor variation of it). In Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?, he starts to fully dress up in a black suit and white pinstriped shirt with black suspenders for awhile, before realizing that he really doesn't need to dress up anymore. In the last few seasons, it was shown that wore other shrits to work briefly (such as a green dress shirt with a red tie and brown slacks), but eventually went back to his orginal fashion. *His favorite food is Weenie Tots, claiming that they're "nature's perfect food". He even becomes excited when he has a chance to see the Weenie Tots factory in Weenie Tot Lovers & Other Strangers and when he's about to become the father-in-law of Lionel Tot, one of the heirs to Tot Industries (makers of Weenie Tots). *His favorite show is "Pyscho Dad" *His hobbies include fishing and bowling, which have been a major theme in a number of episodes. *He, along with Bud, enjoys reading Big'Uns magazine, though in the early seasons, he specifically mentions reading Playboy, stating that he started collecting them with his dad at the age of 12 and even meets Playmate Brandi Brandt at his shoe store in Desperately Seeking Miss October. *In "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", its revealed that Al wears white Hanes underwear, size 34 *His favorite toilet is a Ferguson, refering to it as "the Stratovari of toilets" while his favorite toilet paper is "Aurora White" *In Rites of Passage, Al mentions that his father took him to the Nudie Bar when he turned 18, just as his father's father Jebidah Bundy did for him and now Al was going to take Bud there, claiming that "throughout history, all male Bundys and looking at hooters that don't belong to them go hand in hand" *His favorite songs are "Anna (Go to Him) " by Arthur Alexander, which was the song he struggled to find the name of in the episode, Oldies But Young 'Uns and "Duke of Earl" by Gene Chandler. *His birthday is listed as November 7, 1948. *He was named 'Shoe Salesman of the Year' in 1968 Bundy, Al Category:Bundys Bundy, Al Category:Gary's Shoes Employees Category:Character